Saturday, February 12, 2011

A homage to Mother Teresa as flashed on the f.b. on Feb.13,2011.

Bishwa Nath Singh:

Let us remember one who was God's gift to humanity - dedicated a major part of her life to serve the poor and destitute, though born as an Albanian, getting an Indian nationality later on, she became the Mother of the sick, destitute as well as impoverished that he Roman Catholic nun was the founder of Missionaries of Charity in Cal...cutta in India whose motto of life was to serve people suffering from various incurable diseases, affected by natural calamities and those unwanted by the society! Her passion was love, humanity and helping others who had distinction to receive many prestigious awards like Magasaysay Award in 1962,Noble Peace Prize in 1979 and the highest Civilian award of India Bharat Ratna in 1980.She was none else than Mother Teresa.Let us have glimpse of her life and pay our floral tribute to her!

Bishwa Nath Singh :
Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, Yugoslavia which is now Macedonia on August 27,1910 in most affluent family. Her parents were Nikola and Dronda Bojaxhiu. Her father was a successful merchant and she was youngest of the three siblings He...r Parents had named her Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, but she changed her name to Teresa on May 24, 1931. She lost her father who was murdered when she was seven years old and that had given a big blow to her as she was deeply attached to her most loving father. At a mere age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ and left home at eighteen to serve the Almighty and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. She dedicated every day of her adult life caring for "The dying, the cripple, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved" and she loved every minute of it because she was loving, she was cleaning, feeding "Jesus in disguise". Her final resolution was taken on August 15, 1928, while praying at the shrine of the Black Madonna of Letnice, where she often went on pilgrimage She left home at age of eighteen to join the Sisters of Loreto an Irish community of nuns with missions in India.as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.She initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland to learn English, the language the Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India. She arrived in India in 1929, and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains, where she learnt Bengali and taught at the St. Teresa’s School, a schoolhouse close to her convent.She took her first religious vows as a nun on May 24,1931. At that time she chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries, but because one nun in the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted for the Spanish spelling Teresa. From 1931 to 1948, Mother Teresa taught geography and catechism at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. However, the prevailing poverty in Calcutta had a deep impact on Mother Teresa's mind and in 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.She had taken her solemn vows on May 14,1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta.Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed Headmistress. Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. . Her first day on the job, Mother Teresa picked up a dying woman who was half-eaten by ants. Mother Teresa took the woman to Dhardnshala. She tried to clean the woman, but her skin came off and the woman died. The Bengal famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror. After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, she returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. She started an open-air school for homeless children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and she received financial support from church organizations and the municipal authorities. On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Vatican to start her own order. Vatican originally labeled the order as the Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese, and it later came to known as the "Missionaries of Charity". In 1952 Mother Teresa started the Kalighat Home for the Dying. She and other nuns searched for people who were sick or dying on the streets in Calcutta, India. They helped and cared for them at the home. Once Mother Teresa had very clearly said that she always see God in every human being. She became known as The Saint Of the Gutters. Also, in the later 1950's, she began a leper colony called the Town of Peace at Calcutta The primary task of the Missionaries of Charity that she had taken up was to take care of those persons who nobody was prepared to look after. The Missionaries of Charity, which began as a small Order with twelve members in Calcutta, today has more than four thousand nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and famine in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Poland, and Australia. In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa permission to expand her order to other countries. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela. Presently, the "Missionaries of Charity" has presence in more than hundred countries and for all these ,the credit goes to her passion and wisdom. Mother Teresa's work has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world and she had received a number of awards and distinctions. He had received the Magsaysay Award in 1962, the Padma Shri in 1963, the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, Nehru Prize for Promotion of International Peace & Understanding in 1972, Balzan Prize in 1978, Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1979 .and whereas she was honored with the highest civilian award of India Bharat Ratna in the year1980. During the last years of her life, despite facing several health problems, Mother Teresa continued to serve the poor and needy and work for her Society and Church. The death of Mother Teresa was a huge loss to humanity. She departed from this world, in Calcutta, on September 5,1997, when she was eighty seven years old. On October 19,2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa. The beatification, which took place in Rome, marked the first step of her sainthood. In her death, the world lost one of its most illustrious daughters who cared to every one who was in distress .Let us join to pay our respectful homage and floral tribute to her and pay our humble obeisance’s to her lotus feet and seek her bliss to give us passion and wisdom to carry out her legacy truthfully in our life by helping poor and needy when they are in distress!